Envelope flap closing systems have been developed for use with paper handling equipment such as mailing machines and inserter systems. Envelopes vary in size and shape as do the envelope flaps. Accordingly, paper handling equipment that include envelope closing and sealing systems have frequently been limited in the sizes and types of envelopes that can be closed and sealed.
When equipment is designed to efficiently process, close and seal letter size envelopes, the equipment may be unsuitable for closing and sealing larger type envelopes, such as flat type envelopes. The paper handling equipment envelope transport paths may not be able to accommodate large envelopes, for example, due to curved transport paths. Moreover stiff envelopes of any size may not be able to be processed for closing and sealing where the transport path contains curvature with a radius of curvature too small for bending of the envelope body and/or envelope flap.
To accommodate various size envelopes, paper handling equipment may include separate transport paths for envelopes of different sizes. For example, the Pitney Bowes inserter system, Model No. DI 900 incorporates a transport path for letter size envelopes with a separate machine exit for the letter size envelopes and a second transport path for larger envelopes with a separate machine exit for the larger envelopes. An arrangement with this type of separate transport paths is described in pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/084396, filed Mar. 18, 2005, for Lyga ET AL and entitled PAPER HANDLING SYSTEM MATERIALS EXIT PATH ARRANGEMENT and assigned to Pitney Bowes Inc., the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. This type system allows paper handling equipment such as an inserter system to exit standard envelopes out through the normal letter size envelope exit path and, by having an alternate exit path which is straight, the system can conveniently discharge thick or unbendable envelopes through another envelope path.